Academic Life: Key Questions

QUESTION: What percentage of classes is taught by teaching assistants (TAs) in the first two years of classes? What is the percentage in the third and fourth years? Who is doing the grading?

EXPLANATION: At many schools, particularly large state universities and research institutions both public and private, professors are recruited and retained by reducing (or even eliminating) their teaching loads. Therefore, undergraduates may be taught by graduate students in their twenties working their way toward a Ph.D. rather than by the famous professors lauded in university literature. Pay particular attention to freshman and sophomore classes, where the use of TAs is greatest. The question of who is reading, grading, and commenting on written papers is especially important to a student's education. There is simply no substitute for the knowledge and expertise of a mature faculty member. And where tenure is decided primarily on the quantity of publications rather than the quality of a candidate's teaching, professors have a disincentive to pursue excellence in teaching.

QUESTION: Is there a true core curriculum made up of required courses across the liberal arts and sciences that all students must take, or do you instead rely upon distribution requirements that allow students to pick and choose from among numerous courses within a given discipline?

EXPLANATION: Most schools long ago abandoned their core curricula, which required each student to take a series of broadly informative courses that ensured that everyone emerged widely educated in the arts and sciences regardless of his or her academic major. Many colleges falsely state that they have a core curriculum when that is not at all the case. If your sources answer this question affirmatively, ask them how many choices exist within each disciplinary requirement. If the answer is more than one or two, there is no core curriculum worthy of the name.

QUESTION: Must all students study Western history and literature?

EXPLANATION: When the core was abandoned, most schools still required students to take history and literature survey courses that exposed them to the broad sweep of our civilization's accomplishments. Today, however, an increasing number of schools have made these courses optional. Therefore, many students graduate without ever studying the history or literature of the West. Students may often study cultures or works of literature that are either best left to more specialized studies or that do not merit serious academic attention.

QUESTION: Is a course on American history required for graduation?

EXPLANATION: The study of American history has disappeared from many schools' graduation requirements in much the same way Western history has been removed from the required curriculum. While the absence of such courses from the required list does not mean that they are not available, it does reveal an administration lacking commitment to foster in its students an understanding of our nation's past.

QUESTION: To what extent are students advised by faculty members? If faculty members are not advising students, then who is carrying out this important task?

EXPLANATION: Many colleges assign graduate student advisors or employ professional advisors, thus fulfilling, on paper, an important obligation. Yet these advisors often know little about the particular courses in which a student may be interested, or are professional "educrats" with little qualification for their job. Professors, on the other hand, are best qualified to advise students which courses and professors to take, as well as to offer insight into academic majors, internships, and postgraduate study. Of course, even assigning professors sometimes fails to guarantee access to good information. As documented in the Chronicle of Higher Education, some faculty members are often difficult to track down and hold infrequent office hours. Who your advisor is will impact your life during and after college. Choose wisely.

QUESTION: On average, how many years does it take to graduate? What percentage of freshmen graduate at all?

EXPLANATION: Universities often fail to offer required courses in numbers sufficient to accommodate every student's needs. Courses fill up and leave students with no recourse but to spend additional semesters, and even a fifth or sixth year, fulfilling graduation requirements. Parents must pay more in tuition, while students postpone entry into the workplace and often assume additional debt. This administrative decision also increases the demand for teaching assistants, thus justifying universities' large doctoral programs while relieving professors of their obligation to teach. Everyone wins but the student (and parent).